bcarter123456
Member
I hope this is the right place for this thread and my apologies if not.
In case someone is considering picking up something similar on their own I thought I’d share my experience as a first time pool table buyer. I'll also document some of the work that is being done to it fix it up a bit.
I was pleasantly surprised that my top choice for a table in the size I wanted lasted more than a day and a half before I reached out to the seller. He was beginning to think he would have to cut it up and put it in the dumpster. After we agreed terms he got a lot of offers. He is a man of his word and never flinched. There are good people out there.
It needs some work but nothing too serious. It included two dozen house cues, a box of replacement tips, three new boxes of blue chalk, two 8 ball racks, a 9 ball rack and two old sets of generic balls. The last might make a nice looking shifter knobs.
It took 3 hours and 15 minutes to do all the tear down and load out by myself with two important exceptions noted below. I’d never worked on a pool table before and never seen an Anniversary in person until that moment. The disassembly is simple if you can check a manual first to see how it comes apart.
I cut the cloth and did not remove any staples on site which probably saved more than an hour on location.
The two exceptions:
1) One guy in the building helped flip the frame over and set it back on the slate to be disassembled.
2) The same guy and a coworker lifted the slates from the frame and loaded them into my van. They did not want to accept payment but I assured them it was the best $40 I've spent in a long time. Even on a Pro 8 those three pieces have significant mass.
Nothing else would really qualify as heavy. At first I had some concern that the two oval bases might have been filled with some ballast. I could not budge them even a little. It turned out they were just stuck to the linoleum by years of floor was and who knows what else. Both pulled up layers of linoleum when I finally got them to break loose by pushing against one with my feet and the other with my back.
That said, I did unload them by myself and get them into the house and down two carpeted steps using only a hand truck and two short pieces of 2x4. I would have happily shelled out another $40 if two volunteers had been close. Now that all the cloth is off the heavy lifting will fall to the mechanic.
Everything fit easily into the back of a Honda Odyssey with room to spare. Those things have a surprising load rating so it was no problem. I brought a hand truck and a furniture dolly and used neither.
Be prepared to work with straight head screws, thankfully all of these came out. One thing I was not prepared for was removing ¾” square head bolts when the heads were in recesses. I was very fortunate that all could be loosened with a pair of linesman’s pliers but that is not something I would count on. $14 later I now own a ¾” four point ½” drive socket.
Tool list:
9/16” socket deep for sure and shallow too if you have it.
Ratchet and extension.
An electric impact was handy but not essential same with a driver drill.
Big flat blade screwdriver
Smaller flat blade screwdriver
7/16 combination wrench, a speed wrench is handy if you have one.
Rubber mallet
Adjustable wrench and pliers as you never know.
Razor knife to cut cloth or staple remover is you are trying to save it.
Small tool to pry with in case pockets are tacked.
Allen wrenches for bolted pockets.
Someone chime in with what I missed.
Thanks for reading,
Brent
In case someone is considering picking up something similar on their own I thought I’d share my experience as a first time pool table buyer. I'll also document some of the work that is being done to it fix it up a bit.
I was pleasantly surprised that my top choice for a table in the size I wanted lasted more than a day and a half before I reached out to the seller. He was beginning to think he would have to cut it up and put it in the dumpster. After we agreed terms he got a lot of offers. He is a man of his word and never flinched. There are good people out there.
It needs some work but nothing too serious. It included two dozen house cues, a box of replacement tips, three new boxes of blue chalk, two 8 ball racks, a 9 ball rack and two old sets of generic balls. The last might make a nice looking shifter knobs.
It took 3 hours and 15 minutes to do all the tear down and load out by myself with two important exceptions noted below. I’d never worked on a pool table before and never seen an Anniversary in person until that moment. The disassembly is simple if you can check a manual first to see how it comes apart.
I cut the cloth and did not remove any staples on site which probably saved more than an hour on location.
The two exceptions:
1) One guy in the building helped flip the frame over and set it back on the slate to be disassembled.
2) The same guy and a coworker lifted the slates from the frame and loaded them into my van. They did not want to accept payment but I assured them it was the best $40 I've spent in a long time. Even on a Pro 8 those three pieces have significant mass.
Nothing else would really qualify as heavy. At first I had some concern that the two oval bases might have been filled with some ballast. I could not budge them even a little. It turned out they were just stuck to the linoleum by years of floor was and who knows what else. Both pulled up layers of linoleum when I finally got them to break loose by pushing against one with my feet and the other with my back.
That said, I did unload them by myself and get them into the house and down two carpeted steps using only a hand truck and two short pieces of 2x4. I would have happily shelled out another $40 if two volunteers had been close. Now that all the cloth is off the heavy lifting will fall to the mechanic.
Everything fit easily into the back of a Honda Odyssey with room to spare. Those things have a surprising load rating so it was no problem. I brought a hand truck and a furniture dolly and used neither.
Be prepared to work with straight head screws, thankfully all of these came out. One thing I was not prepared for was removing ¾” square head bolts when the heads were in recesses. I was very fortunate that all could be loosened with a pair of linesman’s pliers but that is not something I would count on. $14 later I now own a ¾” four point ½” drive socket.
Tool list:
9/16” socket deep for sure and shallow too if you have it.
Ratchet and extension.
An electric impact was handy but not essential same with a driver drill.
Big flat blade screwdriver
Smaller flat blade screwdriver
7/16 combination wrench, a speed wrench is handy if you have one.
Rubber mallet
Adjustable wrench and pliers as you never know.
Razor knife to cut cloth or staple remover is you are trying to save it.
Small tool to pry with in case pockets are tacked.
Allen wrenches for bolted pockets.
Someone chime in with what I missed.
Thanks for reading,
Brent
